Sunday, 7th of March, 2010

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Sad news that Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse took his own life this week. Played a track to see him off, in collaboration with Christian Fennesz. Fennesz’s laptop power trio FennO’Berg are back with a new album, on which the jury’s still out – but I haven’t had a chance to listen properly yet. This track stood out enough to get the thumbs up tonight!

Montreal’s The Besnard Lakes’ new album sounds remarkably like The Besnard Lakes — and that’s a great thing! If you’re familiar with their last two albums you’ll know what to expect – and it’s as rapturous and epic as ever.
Fellow Canadians The Arcade Fire slipped in next – for some reason this song was on my mind for a few days this week, and it is a very fine one I must say.
And we had a little reminder of The Besnard Lakes’ first album.

First off in our little “classical” music-influenced theme tonight is The Knife’s opera based on the life and works of Charles Darwin, written “in collaboration” with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock. It’s pretty crazy cool stuff, with scene-setting experimental sounds, enormous analog synth lines, operatic (and non-operatic) vocals and some percussion… A definite winner.
Speaking of classical influence, also another track from that amazing These New Puritans album, with wind ensemble in amongst the percussion and almost new wave attitude…

More classicism with Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason, whose “Bow To String” is the first work on his new album for Bedroom Community. Countless multi-tracked celli make for a rich and richly-rhythmic sound, with a little help from label boss Valgeir Sigurðsson. From Valgeir we also heard a wonderful track from his new album, featuring many other Bedroom Community artists as guests, plus an older glitchy electronic piece which ushered in a bit of an electronic segment. However, in between we had a reprise of the one track as yet available from Sam Amidon’s new album — blissful rhythmic ostinati and an authentic folk voice.

The electronica begins with Sydney’s Vorad Fils, who happens to be one of the members of the beloved Seekae, and has an album coming out via Feral Media soon! Classic electronica.
It’s the first in a number of tracks tonight from New Weird Australia Volume Five, which you are hereby instructed to go and download now. Get the others too if you haven’t yet!
There. Good.

Next, Scottish glitch-hop artist Loops Haunt. Nicely twisted, syncopated and chopped stuff. And while it’s definitely more on the dancefloor tip, it’s still very much listening music too, and strangely appropriate as a segue into a new Autechre track, from their stellar Oversteps. Raved about it last week, and I think we’ll be back for more for a good few weeks yet (at least until the album comes out on CD!) This track starts off a bit oddly but swiftly becomes something fascinating, and the last minute or two as it tails off are pretty amazing.
And then a rarity – an artist about whom I know pretty much nothing! Racoon is on the Italian label Disasters by Choice and makes very Mém-influenced electronic/folktronic sounds. It’s very pretty and I’d love to know more…

We had a brief tag-team tonight between two excellent remix albums, from Aarktica and dakota suite. The former takes the drone-pop of Jon DeRosa’s Aarktica and either takes it more in the droney-guitar direction or adds some nice crunched beats etc… But UFog-favourites The Declining Winter add some extra vocals and Sarah Kemp’s multi-tracked violin for something very special.
The dakota suite remix album actually came out last year but has just been re-released by German label Karaoke Kalk for greater coverage, and it’s brilliant. Tonight, Peter Broderick is at his usual heights with a very soft and reflective piece worthy of multiple re-listens, and Deaf Center contribute something layered and evocative. More of these to come…

Aaron Martin’s latest album isn’t on Sydney’s Preservation, but Experimedia are well-known for their beautiful packaging too. Aaron here seems to be taking things in an even more abstract sound-related direction, but the second track I played is one of his best cello-related works yet, a multi-tracked delight.

Further New Weird Australia offerings include the wonderful Sydney-based sound artist Gail Priest, whose vocal processing is a wonder, the ever-fab Crab Smasher with a bit of almost Sonic Youth-like rock jamming, and Red Plum & Snow — new project for Kris Keogh of Blastcorp, taking vocal-swapping acoustic guitar folk-pop in very interesting directions :)

Also in there, the improv guitar, sax, drums and other stuff from Sydney’s Espadrille, and a b-side from Collarbones, more glitched-up electronic pop.

Labels and artists!

email: utilityfog at frogworth dot com
Utility Fog teeters on the cusp between acoustic and electronic, organic and digital. Constantly changing and rearranging, this aural cloud of nanotech consumes genres and spits them out in new forms. Whether cataloguing the jungle resurgence, tracking the ups and downs of noise and drone, or unearthing the remnants of glitch and folktronica, all is contextualised within artist & genre histories for a fulfilling sonic journey.
Since all these genre names are already pretty ridiculous, we thought we'd coin a new one. So "postfolkrocktronica" it is. Wear it.